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4 Studies in Comparative International Developments Winter 1987-88

through technolQgi.cal/institutional cha llges .had not yet occurred on a

grand scale. Regardless of the details, however, we must recognize that

all three theorists have taken the same end point, namely, the system of

capitalism that eventually developed in Western Europe. From thisoutcome they then reason backward to origins.

This, it seems, raises a basic methodological problem in historiogra.

phy. One must acknowledge, ofcourse, that in ll history the out ome

defermines the narrative that hist6rians construct a narrative of

events that appear to lead inexorably toward that outcome. The· in·

cisive comment ofOermaine Tillion, written in a very different con·

text, is striking. Sbe remarks (1983: 20) that as we all know events

must run their course befof(lbecoming history, so that alltrue history

exists only by virtue of its conclusion, and begins its historical career

from there. 6

f his is indeed correct, then beginmng with a different outcome at a

different moment in time will lead us to a different account of the prior

sequence and a.different set to be explained;· Rather

than taking the outcome of the later industrial revolution for granted

and then trying to explain its causes, one can start at a different end

point and try to reconstruct history retrospectively from there. By

doing this, a revisionist view of what occurred will·emerge.

Before presenting my alternative hypothesis, however, one needs to

clear away a few natural and expected objections. First, this author hasno intention, in this article, ofentering a fniitless argument concerning

the origins of trile or modern capitallsm. The debate between a

Weberian definition of modern capitalism, Which depends upon an

attendant psychological attitude, and a Tawney (1926) definition of

modern capitalism, based upon the existence of modern institutions

of rationalbook·keeping and credit,1 is the last analysis not a good

guide for research. I am less interested in definitional debates than in

capturing what did exist during the time period in question.

Furthermore, this author shall not try to defend a position that

claims. that the scale of excbange in the thirteenth century representeda sufficient threshold;' to allow one to claim a wotld system. I admit

in advance that, in comparison to the sixteenth century, tbe scale of

production and trade in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth cen·

turies Was not large (althou.gh it was}arger than in the fifteenth cen·

but that is.hardly a fair measure.lncomparisonwitb the scale of

international commerce today, the miniSCUle exchanges of the six·

teenth century wither away into obscurity.

he important comparison is not with the future but with tbe past.



Abu-Lughod 5

Did a significant jump in trade occur in the thirteenth century? And

did it tie together many developing areas? Most medievalists claim that

t did. Lopez (1976: 93-94) notes:

At first glance, if we compare the patterns of trade in the Commercial Revolu-tion to those in the Industrial Revolution, certain differences will strike usAll proportions are almost unbelievably smaller. Luxury products tend toplaya more important role than commodities for mass consumption. Manybusiness men show greater interest in enlarging profit margins . . . than inenlarging the number of sales Still the volume of exchanges [is] im-pressive [TJhe sea trade of Genoa in 1293 was three times as large as theentire revenue of the Kingdom of France in the same year.

The same could be said for the radical increase in the scale of inter-

national trade observed in Sung China. Mark Elvin (1973: 171-72)

describes the thirteenth century expansion of China's international

trade, noting that by then China was exporting

copper and iron goods, porcelain, silks, linens, chemicals, sugar, rice and books,and receiving in exchange spices and other exotic items. Parts of the Chineserural economy became directly linked to production for the overseas market.

I will not belabor this point. There was more than enough going on

in the thirteenth century in Europe, in the Middle East, and in the

Far East to justify an investigation. Our intellectual problem is not to

identify the origins of the twentieth century but rather to evaluate the

state of the world system that did exist by the thirteenth century. This

brings us to the guiding hypothesis of my research.

HYPOTHESIS

By about 1250 A.D., East and West were becoming evenly balanced

on a fulcrum in a system which was already taking impressive steps

toward integration. Hegemony could have developed in either direc-

tion and, at that time indeed, it appeared more likely that Asia, ratherthan Europe, would be dominant, since it was more developed, tech-

nologically and institutionally. In short, there was nothing inevitable

about the Rise of the West: 8

And yet, 150 years later, the balance had tipped. Western gains out-

weighed Asian advances. And by the sixteenth century, Europe had not

only conquered the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic but had gained

control over the Mediterranean Sea (see especially the works of

Braudel, 1972; Chaunu, 1979; Chaudhuri, 1985), thus sealing a world



6 Stlldies In Compuative International Developmellts / Winter ,1987418

hegemony that, from the point of view of he thirteenth century, was

certainly not foreordained;

A REFORMULATION OF TH QUESTION

From thi.s vanUlge point, a question somewhat different from that ofmost historical sociologists arises. AlmostitllWestern writing bas beenboth Eurocentric and written from the hindsightof he nineteenth andtwentieth centuries. It h s·· Wsed the question, crudely parapltrased:What was so special about the West that made it, rather than someother region, the "master" of the world system? Put this way, the ques-tion has aself-congratuIatory ring. t looks into the qualities ofthe West to accountforits success. By.contrast, then, it judges the othercontenders as deficient insofar as they l cked the characteristicsof heWest.9

This is a loaded question because it takes for granted the inevitability

of the outcome. Certainly, a different question would be as legitimate,namely: What interfered with the expected development of the Eastwhich prevented it from translating its existing strengths into furthergrowth?

Some Western scholars have, indeed, posed these questions, but the

form of their answer h s been equally Eurocentric. Certain charac-

teristics ofEastern cultures are criticizedas preventing further develop-ment- IO Thus, after-the·fact explanations are advanced which blamethe stagnation of the Chinese economy on its strong imperial system

(in contrast to the spatial anarchy of forgetting all the whilethat it was the strength of the imperial system that had led to China'sadvanced state throughout history and that European strength did notreally translate into world power until the state began to playa moreactive protectionist role. Similarly, the failure of the Arab world tomove onto a Western versionofcapitalism is attributed to thedeleteri

ous effects of the region's religion, Islam, which set up barriers to the

accumulation of capital. This explaDation similarly ignores the factthat merchant capitalism developed in this 'ejjon along. with the re-ligion (Rodinson, 1974; Goitein, 1967; 1958; Fischel, 1958; Wiet, 1955;

Ashtor, 1983; Lambton, 1962 and indeed controlled international

trade for many centuries.In short, most explanations for why the balance tipped in favor of

Europe cite internal strengths in the West and internal weaknesses inthe East to account for the outcome. This form ofexplanation is scien-tificallyinadequate because it fails to consider the geopolitical-demo-



Abu-Lughod 7

graphic context within which societies develop and evolve, rise and fall.

However, Western scholars have been content with this inadequate

explanation because it tends to be self-serving.

We can test this by examining how different are Western explana-tions for the fall of Rome. For the latter, two types of explanations are

seen as moving together both internal decline and external threat.

And yet, when the rise of the West and the fall of the East are consid-

ered, the external explanations such as the expansion and then

breakup of the Mongol Empire Grousset, 1939; Boyle, 1977) or the

spread of the Black Death, int r alia-are with the notable exception

again of McNeill especially 1976 , forgotten or downgraded to pe-

ripheral issues.

My own work begins with the hypothesis that the crucial reorgan-

ization of he world system that occurred between 1250 and 1400 was at

least as attributable to systemic geopolitical and demographic causes as .

it was to any cultural characteristics inherent in East or West. Dif-

ferences in cultural systems were sufficient to allow differences in the

forms that industrialization might have taken, but were not sufficient,

in themselves, to account for the presence or absence of development. 2There is very little written on the world system at that time. Most of

the attempts to view the international picture, viz. the important con-

tributions ofBraude 1973; 1982-84) and Eric begin with

the year 1400. Despite the fact that the sources are more meagre before

that date, we.shall try to describe it because t was at that time that the

outcome, already predictable by 1400, remained in Question.

THE MAJOR OUTLINES OF THE SYSTEM IN 1250-1350

It is impossible to grasp the shape of the world system as it wavered

on the fulcrum of the second half of the thirteenth century without

some mechanism of selection. One can therefore choose to examine

this system through a comparative analysis of a sample ofcities located

along the major world trade routes that ran from northwest Europe toChina. The accompanying map shows schematically the shape of the

subsystems that, linked together, made up the world system, and t also

shows the locations of the cities being studied in detail.

One might reasonably ask why study cities rather than whole so-

cieties? The answer is simple. In comparative work it is important to

compare commensurables. While China, the Arab world, and the ter-

ritories in the Khanates of Central Asia were organized into empires,

the boundaries of these units were characterized chiefly by their elas-



8 Studies in Comparative International Developments / Winter 1987 88

I

_

THE SH PE O THE WORLD SYSTEM

IN THE 1li CENTURY

SHOWING SlIISYSTEMS I TtI IOUGH VI



Abu-Lugbocl

ticity. In contrast, their central places had greater continuity; they

tended to playa more permanent role in the world system than did the

states and empires that rose and fell around them. Furthermore, in the

western region, the state or national system had not yet become theunit of action (Anderson, 1974). Indeed, the only commensurate units

found in all places, albeit enjoying varied degrees of autonomy, were

cities.

In addition, while most cities exist only by virtue of the wealth

generated in the rural areas around them, the key to the thirteenth

century commercial world was long distance trade which al-

lowed some entrepots (notably on the Arabian Peninsula and along the

Straits of Malacca) to exist without any agrarian hinterland l4 and gave

to other cities a second economic base that supplemented the agrarian

one. In many instances, this trade became the key to industrialization,a third and growing economic base in many of the cities we are consid-

ering. We find, for example, that the demand for good quality wool to

provision the expanding textile industry of Flanders strengthened the

links between English and Flemish cities, just as imported raw silk was

originally essential to produce the Middle Eastern brocade called

Damask, after Damascus.) Thus, whether cities were integrated into

imperial systems or not, they constituted links in the chain or rather

the network of international commerce.

I decided to study cities strategically positioned in the growing world

system of the thirteenth century not only because they make logical

units for analysis and comparison but because they are of intrinsic

interest, since this author's view of the world has always been through

the urban lens. By focusing on a limited sample of cities, patterns that

the full canvas might otherwise obscure can hopefully be clarified. The

set ofcities being examined includes:

I. The four towns ofthe periodic Champagne Fairs Lagny and Bar-sur-Aube,which had one fair each per year, and Provins and especially Troyes, whichhosted two.

2. The Flemish textile-trade towns, especially Ghent as an example of a pro-ducer city and Bruges as an example of an international trading center.

3. The key sea-trading city states of Genoa and Venice, locked in a bittercompetitive battle to become the hinge (McNeill, 1974, used this term asa descriptor of Venice) between Europe and the Orient; both struggled tocontrol Constantinople, the Black Sea, and thence the overland connectionsto the East; both were rivals to monopolize the spice trade that movedthrough Egypt in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries.

4. The great overland caravan centers through Central Asia, especially Sa-markand and Bukhara.

5. The urban-based system that had Baghdad as its core, Aleppo/Antioch as its



10 Studies in Comparative Internatiooal Developments / Winter 1987-88

western link to the and lwaas its outlet to theArab/persian Gulf. Aleppo and Baghdad Were also keytilke-ofTPoints forthe overlluld route.

6. The urban·based system that had Cairo as its core, Alexandria as its link to

the Meditertallean and, 11 the 59l1t11east the E,edSea ports that led towardthe African Horn and to the Il diI n Ocean and beyolld. .

7. The porthoines of the great Persian/Arab traders: Sirat; Hormuz, Oman,HadralllRut, isb and,' by mid-thirteenth century, especially Aden.

8. The port cities along the western coast of India, including Cambay, Quilon,and Calicut.

9. The regionaJong the Straits of MaJacca Which while not "urbanized" in theconventional sense of the term, contained a shifting series of specializedtrading posts cO.ntrolled by Hindu rulers; these played a central role in

mediatilli with China.10. The city the l IIlest city in the world in the thirteenth

century, which Was the capital city oftbe southern Sung dynasty, serVed byan international port.

THEMETHOD OF PAIRED AND MOVING COMPARISONS

The statement that the world was balanced on a fulcrum is more

than a metaphor. If one were to describe the world system in 1250 one

would have to say that it consistedof a series of interlinked and overlap-

ping subsystems which at that moment were in rough balance. The

chief research question being pose is: What happened to disturb this

system? One thing thatis certain is that given the complexities and thenumerous subsystems, no single factor could have been responsible for

the change. Rather, one suspects that the. overall shift can best be ac-

counted for as the resultant vector created when the smaller subsystems

underwent reorganization. Therefore, one can approach the larger

question by studying what was happening to the subsystems and to

their relationships with one another.

My current assumption is that the world system in the thirteenth

century consisted of some seven or eight interlocking subsystems,

roughly sketched on the map. The kingpin of the entire system lay at

the land t>ridge between the eastern Mediterranean apd the outlets tothe Indian Ocean on the south and between .the Mediterranean and

Cent{al Asia (subsystem III). This area had been a heartland during

earlier periods of mperial expapsion (viz. from the origin ofman's first

"urban" societies down to Hellenic and Romap times) but it took on

renewed significance in the early centuries .ofIslamic hegemony. By the

tenth century, the sealirtks from the Persian Gulf aU the way to east

Africa, west India, and then on to the Indian archipelago, and even

China were fully established, as is evidenced by the works of the Arab



Abu Lughod t

geographers and the travel accounts of Arab sailors and traders (see

inter alia the texts translated and reproduced in Gabriel Ferrand,

1913; Tibbets, 1981; see also Hourani, 1951 . By the end of the elev-

enth century the Crusades intensified the contacts between WesternEurope and the Arab world, which stimulated demand in Europe for

Eastern products. The twelfth century saw the Fertile Crescent and

Egypt reunited under the Ayyubids, always a good sign for the political

and economic strength of that region. By mid-thirteenth century, with

the defeat of the seventh Crusade under St. Louis, the Arab world had

regained much of its autonomy, although further incursions from the

east (the so-called Mongols) were already compensating for the re-

duced Western pressures.

From this core region, the world system linked outwards in two

directions. To the west (subsystem II , the central hinge on which the

world system balanced was the link between Italy (and especially Ven-

ice) and the eastern Mediterranean. There were two paths westward:

one from the Arab world which controlled the sea passages to the east,

the other from the shrunken Byzantine state which controlled access to

significant land routes across Asia. (In the mid-thirteenth century Ven-

ice itself ruled Constantinople.) From Italy, especially Venice but also

Genoa, the linkage also went to (peripheral) northern Europe which, in

the early thirteenth century, was fully dependent upon Italian traders

for its trade with the Orient (subsystem I .To the east, the central hinge on which the world system balanced

was the Indian Ocean where Arab traders controlled access to India

(subsystem IV) and then to the Hinduized Straits of Malacca (sub-

system V which, in turn, acted as an intermediary for China (sub-

system VI). (See, among other sources, the classic, albeit highly

prejudiced, work of W. Heyd, 1885-1886, as well as the new and re-

o markable book by Chaudhuri, 1985.) Finally, there was at least one but

perhaps two subsystems that organized overland traffic between Tur-

key/Iraq/Iran and northern China, passing through the territories of

the various Tartar/Mongol empires (subsystem VII), finally reachingConstantinople.

When the large system tipped, it was because the Mediterranean-

northwestern European links deepened and diversified while the link

between the eastern Mediterranean and the Orient began to fray in

places and was rudely torn in others. That change, which began to

o ur by the end of the thirteenth entury with the fall of the

Crusader enclaves on the Syro-Palestinian coast, intensified by the

mid-fourteenth century (Ashtor, 1983 . Precipitating factors included:



12 SllIcIles in Comparative InteraatlonaJ Developments / WilMer,1987..88

(1) the Black Death; beginning 1347·51, which decimated city· popula-

tions in the Levant-Egypt-Italy core system more harshly than in any of

the other subsystems; and (2) the fierce rivalry among the various

Mongol khanates in Central Asia which, in the latter part of he four-teenth century, clearly interfered with the overland connection from

Constantinople. This was the link that had strengthened during. the

preceding century due to the earlier Pax Mongolica.

While these events caused a decline in the heartland, they did not

immediately break up the system. Indeed, t appears that both periph-

eries grew stronger, despite or perhaps even because thecentnU liriks

were fraying. The fifteenth century was a period of renewed growth and

expansion in certain parts of Europe, in Ottoman Turkey and the

Orient.

And yet, by the first decade of the sixteenth century the Mediterra-

nean was being bypassed. Portuguese successes in the Red Sea and

Indian Ocean, the immobilization of both Hindu and Muslim trade

intermediaries, and the withdrawal of the Ming dynasty from the exter-

nal trade that had characterized the Sung and Yuan periods (Lo,

1954-55; 1958), all served to interrupt a system that had operated for

more than five hundred years. It w s thisgeQpolitical shift, more than

either religious or cultural changes later in that century, that sealed the

fate of the Orient Therefore, most of the reasons for the rise of the

West were already in place by the opening of he sixteenth century,before the defeat of the Ottoman fleet and before the appearance of

Weber's Protestant Ethic.

The term fulcrum or balance can be applied not only to the system

as a whole but also to the various subsystems ofcities whose fates often

bore an inverse relationship to each other. The remainder of this arti-

cle, then, will layout the main lines of these reorganizations.

In the middle of the thirteenth century one of the obvious facts was

that the Europelln subsystem; WlIS lin important trensfor-

manon one which would affect developments in the. larger one. the

periodic fairs that were being held in the towns of Troyes, Provins,LlIgny, and Bar-sur-Aube, the so-called Champagne Fairs whi<;p oper-

lIted under the protection of the Counts Brie see

the five-volume chronicle of Troyes by T. Boutiot,1870-iO; the Gies'

1969 popularized but fascinating book on. life in Troyes in 1250 A.D.;

Mesqui on Provins, 1979; and the works of Cbllpin, 1937; Bautier,

1953; Bourquelot, 1865-67; and Alengry, 1915, on the fairs themselves)

were among the key links between northwestern Europelln cities and

the Italian trading states. There were, at that time, no direct links



.

Abu-Lugbod 13

between northern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, much less

any direct contacts with the Orient. Thus, producers from the Flemish

textile towns had to journey to the Champagne Fairs to exchange their

wares for the wines of France or the silks and spices of the East.By the end of the thirteenth century, however, Bruges had become a

world market port,. when the Genoese made their direct sea connection

with the North Sea via the Atlantic. This bypass of the Champagne

Fairs, to which merchants from Italy had to come laboriously over the

Alps or up the rivers against the flow and from which the Flemish

merchants had been banned for political reasons, led eventually to an

irreversible decline in the towns which had hosted the fairs. While the

fairs continued into the early fourteenth century, by the middle of that

century the Italian merchants had ceased entirely to frequent them. IS

By then, the North Sea route had become the major one.

Similarly, the cities of Venice and Genoa were continually in compe-

tition with one another for markets, both on the European continent

and the East. In this competition, control over Constantinople, which

guarded access to the northern overland route, was absolutely crucial.

In general, Venice maintained the advantage, thanks to the affiliation it

had from earliest days with the Eastern Roman Empire (Lane, 1974;

Norwich, 1982; Cessi, 1981 . This, plus her location on the east coast of

Italy, ensured her dominance over the eastern Mediterranean. As Re-

nouard notes in his classic work (1969: I, 131 :

From its origin, Venice played the role of intermediary between the Orient andthe West. In the East, the Venetians boughtthe products of the Northern coun-tries: the furs and the products of the Russian steppes, cereals and slaves; theproducts of central and tropical Asia: spices, jewels, precious stones, silk andluxury cloth; the products of the Byzantine and of anterior Asia: fruits, alum,silken stuffs, all luxury items.

They exchanged the items they brought to Europe for the woolen and

linen cloths manufactured in Flanders and France, for metals and ore

from Germany and England, for woods and slaves from Dalmatia, and

the like. Indeed, when Constantinople threatened to reduce the mo-nopolistic position Venice had over the inland route, Venice reacted

promptly nd decisively. In connection with the fourth crusade, boats

nd men were collected t Venice, from which they set sail for the

Fertile Crescent. At the last minute, however, they were deflected for a

surprise attack on Constantinople. The result was that, between 1204

and 1261, the Republic of Venice actually ruled Constantinople, and t

is said th t the Venetian colony in Constantinople rivalled in size the

settlements around the Rialto (Lane, 1974: 69 .



4 Studies in Com)lllllltive International Developments / Winter ,1. -88

Even after Constantinople's autonoroy was restored, Venice re-

mained the over the eastern trade tIlrough that cityuntil the'Genoese destroyed the n CoustantinQPle,

thereby gaining control over ,commerce in the Black Sea, in theCrimea, and in the, Caspian, The rivalry to power back andforth between the two throughout the thirteenth and-fourteenth cen-turies. 16 Genoa's true power; however, came froro her etforts to devd,op

alternate routes via the Atlantic, first to reach the North Sea and theBaltic and, eventually; to reach India and China. That,Columbushailedfrom Genoa was scarcely accidental; his was the obsession or he cen-tury.

The Middle East subsystem was also undergoing a radical change

during the second half of the thirteenth century, a bift which turnedon the rivalry between Baghdad and Cairo. At the beginning of thethirteenth century the dominant route to the Orient still passedthrough Antioch, Aleppo, and overland to, Bagbdad, before moving

either ellJtward on the overland route or southward to Basra thegateway to the Persian-Arab Gulf and thence to the IndianBaghdad.'shegeroony as unquestioned and was vllli ted by the factthat the Caliph,hiror;elfwas located there. While the Kurdish folloWjM S

ofSaladin hadturned Qackthe Crusadtlts andcontI QUed virtually all ofthe Fertile Crescent as well as Egypt, t1:Iey were still not considered

supreroe, nor was the trade route via the, Red Sea the dominant one.The fulcruro image fits this situation well, for between 1250 and

1260 the,balance tippe(l. the transition in froro the AyyUbids tothe rule of the Bahri MlUlliuks was ,begun in 1250; the interim period

was completed by 1260 with the consolidation of heir rule. During thesame period, Baghdad experienced a precipitous The M ols

sacked Baghdad in 1258 and, to protect Islaro, the Abbasid Caliphwas

hastily removed to Cairo. The symbolicpresenceofth,e Caliphate inCairo during subsequent contributed to the relativeimportance(Jf that city to the Arab world.

Significantly, it wasal this time that the, Red Sea route to the Indiesand beyond took on greater importance; The Red Sea, .while not. as

easilynavjpted as.the PerillaJl Gulf

the Indian Ocean when the Gulfwas closed or in hostile hands,17 TheMamluk state and its roerohant class, together with theirtradingPlU't.ners, the Venetians,.gained an increased monopoly overtant spice trade (Richards, ed., 1970; 1971; Ashtor, 1956,

1983; Labib, 1965; callen, 1964; Wiet, 1955).

. Key figures in the interchange between the Middle Eastern heartland



Abu-Lughod 15

cities and the Indian Ocean were the Arab/Persian seafaring traders

who worked out of a succession of small ports on the coasts of the

Persian ulfor at key strategic points at the base of the Arabian Penin-

sula guarding access to either the ulf or the Red Sea (Tibbets, 1981 .Exactly which of these ports/strategic points were important at which

time was dependent on the shape of the larger system of transit. As we

have already noted, in the earlier period the Persian ulf w s the

dominant passage to the Indian Ocean. When this was so, Siraf (on the

Persian littoral of the Gulf) and later the island of Kish and the port of

Muscat on the southeastern tip of the Peninsula, where the Gulf and

the Indian Ocean meet, were indispensable anchorage (and tribute)

points on the way to India and China (Heyd, 1885 . But when Baghdad

was sacked by the Mongols, Basra's access to its northern hinterland

was truncated. The port of Aden then took over as the chief entrepot

mediating the trade between Cairo-Alexandria and points northwest

and the Indian Ocean and points east. IS

The shift from Baghdad to Cairo caused the shift from the Persian

ulf to the Red Sea which, in turn, affected the seafaring principalities

that carried trade to Asia. Furthermore, which of the cities on the

Indian subcontinent waxed or waned was the result, in part at least, of

whether the Persian ulf or the Red Sea was the major path from the

Middle East. Cambay to the north flourished when such traffic exited

and entered primarily through the Persian Gulf; ports of the Malabarcoast farther south, especially Quilon and Calicut, became more im-

portant when ships used the Red Sea. By the middle of the thirteenth

century, Chola traders on the southeast coast ofIndia were also impor-

tant intermediaries between the south Asian mainland and the Arab

traders who controlled the routes in the western Indian Ocean.

From India the sea transit connected with China through the Straits

ofMalacca. While the route never deviated (no alternative pathway has

ever been discovered), the site and relative importance of the particular

entrepot along the straits which controlled passage and exchange

tended to vary. On occasion, the key entrepot was on the east coast ofSumatra (e.g., Palembang and other capitals of the kingdom of Srivi-

jaya) while at other times i t was on the west coast of the Malay Penin-

sula, e.g., Kalab and then, after 1400, at the newly founded town of

Malacca itself (Wolters, 1967; 1970; Sandu and Wheatley, 1983; Rock-

hill, 1914). There seems to have been no necessity causing these shifts

which responded more to local power than to either strategic or com-

mercial reasons. On the contrary, whether the Hinduized princedoms

along the Straits (Coedes, 1964) handled trade or not depended mostly



16 Studies in Comparative International Developments / Winter 1987-88

upon the Chinese. The states of the Straits played important

roles as intermediaries whenever the Chinese expelled foreign (Arab)

traders or drew back into their borgers. When the Chinese merchants

and navy were more outgQing and the area of the .Straitsbecame less significant as a necessary POrt of interchange. 19

There is an histo.rical anomaly in this region. The thirteenth century

is a lacuna in our knowledge of the Straits o.f Malacca; either trade

through the Straits had temporarily declined or the needed documents

have not yetbcen recovered. In any case, documentation and apparent

trade both pick up by 1400. One possible explanation for why the

region of Srivijaya seems to have undergo.ne an eclipse just when the

pace of international sea trade quickened in the thirteenth century is

that China itself took over the commercial functions formerly per-

formed by the Malay chiefdoms.

As yet, this author knows little about central Asia (subsystems VII

and VIII) to make a similar analysis, and yet major shifts were occur-

ring there due to the activities o.fthe nomadic groups loosely classified

as "Mongols." The breakup,. during the fourteenth century, of the Pax

Mo.ngolica established by Ghengis Khan in the thirteenth century

(Boyle, 1958; 1971; 1977) was certainly the factor that deflected more

and more trade to the sea route who.se gateway was Egypt.

Certainly,. the shift ·of the. center ofgravity in China from. the interior

(near Xian) to the southern coastal regio.n, while begun considerablyearlier than the thirteenth century, was the beginning of a phase in

Chinese civilization that led eventually. to Mongol rule in the north,

centered at Karakorum and Khan-Bl Wc (Peking), while the southern

Sung took to. the sea Until it too fell to Mongol rule, Hangchou was

perhaps tbelarg4ijst city in the world (see Gernet, 1962, which describes

life in on the eve" of the Mongol conquest), and may have

remained so even after its conquest.

The thirteenth century is acknowledged to be a time of important

economic develcmments in China: the breakup of estates, the rise of

capitalistic-cum-state commerce (Shiba, 1970), significant tech-beginning ofa new indus-

trial phase with highly developed metallurgy (Hartwell, 1967;

Needham, 1970: 107-112), and a new phase of long distance trade

complete withbilnki1 lg, instrllJillents o.f credit, and even paper money

(Shiba, 1970; Elvin, 1973; Chou, 1974:104-5; Yang, 1952). It was at

this time that the Sung became. a true not only in trade but

in sea warfare; by gunpowder were mQunted on heir

ships (Lo, 195.4-55), belying the Western position that China used her



Abu-Lughod 17

gunpowder only to produce fireworks. In short, during the second half

of the thirteenth century it was far more likely that China would be-

come the first nation to industrialize along capitalist lines than that

Europe would assume that role.20

THE DILEMM

Toward 1300 Europe was a mere upstart and living at a standard far

inferior to that enjoyed in the regions to her east. China had long

developed metallurgy and industrialized production as well as signifi-

cant military might. Throughout the next century she was to behave

quite aggressively, sending forays as far as the east coast ofAfrica and in

general flexing her muscles in the Indian Ocean arena. The Middle

East, despite its periodic eruptions, was also enjoying a period of pros-perity and power, once the Crusader incursions ceased. The early four-

teenth century was one of effiorescence in the region, with most cities

growing beyond the walls that had previously contained them. The

unification of Egypt and the Fertile Crescent under the Mamluks led to

significant strength-sufficient to hold the Mongol invaders at bay. (In

1400 Ibn Khaldun was present when a stand-off peace treaty was

signed with Timurlane.) And yet something happened to reverse this

situation.

At this point I cannot say with certainty what it was. But as notedearlier, some of the answer is to be found in the Black Death epidemic

and its differential effects on core and peripheral regions (Got-

tfried, 1985; McNeill, 1976); part of the answer is possibly to be found

in Central Asia. And certainly the coup de gr ce came from the mar-

itime achievements of Spain and especially Portugal at the turn of the

fifteenth/sixteenth century. But why the latter were so successful re-

mains to be explained. What weaknesses in the old balance allowed the

interlopers to destroy a pattern which had persisted for many cen-

turies? The answer to that question remains the ultimate aim of my

research.

NOT S

Support received from Northwestern Univetsity and the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy

Research is gratefully acknowledged here. The author is indebted to Jack Goldstone, ImmanuelWallerstein, and William McNdU for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

I. his distinction is crucial, since empires governing regions date back t the foundation of

true cities in the fourth millennium, and a claim for an imperial, if partial, world systemcould actually be made several earlier times, e.g. the Greeks under Alexander and, of course,

Rome which at its peak held under its sway virtually a of the world known to it. A world



18 Studies in Comparative InternatiOlllll Developments / WiBter 198NJ8

system is not incompatible with the fact that itt ieq w,wther subsystems of lOOIiely-related"empires," nor is tbe idea incompatible fact that it was core cities. not whole regionsor 4 coun tries," that constituted the soinewhatdiilembodied nodes of tile SYStem.

2. By the thirteenth century in example, the importers ofwool and the ownersof

looms on the one hand, and tbe fuUers and weavCtl on the Othet; were sep8l'a1il'l into twoclasses, a fact not unrelated to expanding production (Nicliolas, 1971, iNer alla . EDgiishwool was being imported, .and finished cloth was being exported to the Fairs ofCbalnpllgne,and to Italian cities such as Florence, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice. The. same was evi<l\il IYhappening in China wbere mass or at least "masser" production for tile market (includingthe export market) was supplementing the strong internal market, particularly for silk clothand for other items as well.

3. Butthen, one must aIlI Iaeknowl tiult .the type offeudalism found (in theMiddle East and ChiiJii) wasqllite different from that which Marx posittidas univetisal.

4. It me as partiClllarly search{orimcientanal< &ues totheftOle$tant.Ejhicandthus to assume that there was only One possible P' th to "mooemca.pitalism." Weber rou-tinely made a clear distinctiOtrbetween "pre-mooemcapitalism . and "modern capitalism."While in his essayS on thePl otestailt Ethic he to base thisdistinction on llSychic in Economy and Society the distinction is clearly

based more on institutiol'ili1alld culturillcriteria.5. In no way is this comment froID the enormous contribution that worldsystem's theory hll$ made· to selllil'ili1 work was, indeed .. adirect stimulus tomy studY. I sI1ouIdfiote,heni tiullWaUerstein's criteria forthi: existenee of"modem capitalism i ate someWhaldift'eient i'tomthase of either Marx or weber.

6. In more scholl\l'ly pojnt isml\de, inl r alia. by Si& eY. (1962},andeven more COSCI1t1y by theOl1lch scb'llJlt, J.C. van Leur. tbe compilation and tl'll ls\ ltionof his earlier Writings (1955)' esPecltiJly Chapter I, in which he stresSeS haw Eurocentrichistory distons anddefoJ1m5other histories.

7. Tawney's critique of the WebeI:ian thesi in Religion and the Rise ol(;apilplism (1926) ismerely the first in aserie$ ofstudies tIiIIt lu\Ve addmsed this debate. Wbereas1llwney pl80esthe origin of Cl PitalWn in century ItSly, we mU$ note that a tarae bo Iy ofliterature exists to demonstn\tethat the instruments of credit used Oy the Ibllian$actually borrowed from the for exaliiple;thecollection ofdqcuIDcots ini..Opei and

Raymond, eds.(CitcaI960}'See also RodioSon (1974) and A. Udovitch(1967; 1910).8. That ter.. m.is a fl\VOIite..of. A. m. .n.1i8D.... $ lbo.• Ia 's......... 'liS..th. etitle.·.. both..... Of. M...eN...eill... s. Cl :1.Y IiIm.OUS.text (1963) aildof a recentatti* byl>aihlelChirot (l98S} The latteJ; Weber,

claims that the qti8llile. ortheWestWet'e its Blifhedoesso on the basi.s of Western .S(ICODdaty )he ·effects of the JIIeth.odologjcal dilemma notedabQve.On the other hand, thefol-meracknOwledges the rernarkablestre 1Sths olthe Fat Eastern world thatwere coaIesciIljl inthethirteenilicentury(MIlNeiill, 479, 485, IIl'disaWare of many of the tIlat )hem. IJldeec , in hisThe Pursuit ofP01+i1r he. '$y$i1DequivocallY thilt ulitil ISOOChilla waS defili.\teiy theWOrld's foremost power. Another exCePtion to W1 Stetn ethnocentrism is PblUp Cut1llin'sCross-Cultural Trade. ill WorldB/story (1984}

9. Much of the literature on produced by the last oft leoristsoperated on a silliUarse1l'other inwhiCb the failures of the Ttiitd W.,tldwere

conveniently blamed on their lack of tile achievement motive (McClcHand, 19(7);worse, exceptions to the rule were explained by the presence of a "Protestant-1ilre Ethic"(Bellah, 1957).

10. Viz. even the title of European Expansion nd the Counter-Example 01 Asia, 13 } ),16 ) ).

edited by J. Levenson The remar.lcable contributions of Joseph Needham wbo. has

detailed the tecl1JlO ofcaI and advances ofChina have prOven the latter'ssuperi-ority. At tile sliJjletime, "Raw" inChinli¢ or

(see his 1910; 1954-I985). SchoJatiSliave begun: to questioti iIiIS'ClIsyanswer. See, for examplll, tile reviSioJiist al1icleby (19'2). Shrin.8rJijes tbatNeedham WlI$ wrollllin stati/li. tIlat Qliiill., knowJe4&e l\1\d tech-nolpgical advances; did not it revdiu ipn like West (eSpecliilly IOS-I06).Chinese scholars have always tliken tliliiposition (e.g., Chou, 1974: 99-100).



Abu-Lughod 19

II See Perry Anderson (1974), inter alia. But there is clear historical evidence of the use of thestate even earlier to protect the interests of the mercbJlnt class in almost all city states ofthirteenth century Europe. The worlc ofLestocquoy (1945; 1952) on the urban patriciates ofFrench, Flemish, and Italian towns orthe time gives ample evidence orthe use of the state toprotect and enhance bourgeois interests. On the connections in Ghent, see Nicholas (1971).

12. The shocking ability ofJapanese culture to permit that nation to reach the industrial levelsof today is sufficient to disprove the single-path to industrial progress that is implicit inmuch of he old literature on modernization/development.

13. Wolf boldly acknowledaes that history written from a Western point of view leaves most ofthe world's people without a history, like the anthropologist's 'primitive contempo-raries,' and that the Eastern accomplishments in empire building and long-distance tradeshaped a world that Europe would soon reorganize to answer requirements of its own

(quoted 1982: This view comes closest to my own assumptions.14. Two of the cases selected arc not even cities in the conventional sense. Rather, they are

almost exclusively ports connected to long distance trade: the seafaring ports at the exitsfrom the Red Sea and Persian/Arab Gulf; and the moving entrepots along the Straits ofMalacca. Not accidentally, both sets of places are characterized by unstable location incontrast to the remaining more conventional cities. I am grateful to Paul Wheatley (personalcommunication) who helped me recognize this point.

IS. One cannot but wonder whether the Black Death which struck the Italian city states sohardaround the middle of the century was not realJy responsible for the disappearance ofltalianmerchants from the Champagne Fairs at that time. This is not the explanation given by thescholars of he Champaane Fairs, which may merely be a symptom of he fact that specialiststend to stay too close to their objects of study. More and more I am finding that taking aworld view helps me to notice items which regional scholars seem to miss or confuse. Forexample, objects identified by origin in the oiriginal sources of the time often refer tointermediary points (Chao Ju-Kua, I suspect that foreign merchants often gavemisleading information about the provenance of tems in order to protect their monopoliesover suppliers. Only by piecing together documents from different regions can one identifythese errors.

16. Without this rivalry it is possible that we could have missed one of the major sources on thethirteenth century, namely, the Travels o Marco Polo. A Venetian captured and imprisonedin Genoa, to pass the time Marco Polo recounted his travels to a cell-mate who transcribedthem.

17. Significantly, the Portuguese circumnavigation of Africa reduced the importance of bothalternative routes until the mid-nineteenth century when, with the building of the SuezCanal, the route that had dominated the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries once againcame into preferred use.

18. Heyd (1885) is very explicit about the key role ofAden from the second half orthe thirteenthcentury on and about the growing significance of the Red Sea-liddah-Qalzum-Cairo-Alex-andria route to the Mediterranean but be does not seem to see the cause for its rise. See Vol.1 (165,378-79) in which he notes the rise of Aden but attributes the decline in the PersianGulf traffic explicitly to the fearsome behavior of the Sultan of the island of Kish. Mytheory is that there were far more basic causes for this shift.

19. The best sonrces I have found thus far are Chaudhuri's masterly study of the Indian Ocean(1985); the first four chapters of van Leur's Indonesian Trade and Society (1955); the worksof Paul Wheatley (1983, which unfortunately focuses on an earlier period; 1961, morerelevant; and Sandu and Wheatley, 1983, which begins with the founding of Malacca in14(0); those of 0.w Wolters (1967 which ends circa 7th century: 1970, which carries the

story to the founding of alacca in 14(0); Mooketjii's history of Indian Shipping 1962);Toussaint's History o he Indian Ocean (1966); and Coedes' Les hats hindouises d lndo-chine et d lndonesie A good summary of the role of trade in Asia can be found inchapter 6 ofCurtin (1984:

20. The control by the Mongols was not to reverse this. Indeed, McNeill claims (1963: 525-26)that the comparatively high status enjoyed by merchants in the Mongol scheme of thingsencouraged the shipowners ofSouth China to develop a flourishing trade.

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